Functional knowledge mandatory for an abaper

[Former Member]

Dear Experts,

I have one doubt .I would like to know how much functional knowledge is required for an abaper. I am a beginner.

How to become a good abaper.

[Former Member]

Good answers but not helpful.

[former_member184657]

Ok. So here's a helpful answer.

An ABAPer should have enough Functional knowledge^ to be able to answer [this thread.|;.

pk

EDIT: ^ and Technical

Edited by: kishan P on Feb 6, 2010 11:57 AM

[Former Member]

^ and Security...

[matt]

The more business and functional knowledge a developer has, the better he'll be able to apply his development skills. Though I'd rather have a developer with little business knowledge who's really good a programming, than a business monster who doesn't know what encapsulation is. Sadly, especially since the idea that technical skills are a commodity, what you end up with is "developers" who have no understanding of program design and no business understanding either. And dreadfully written programs, which are intially produced very cheaply but are enormously expensive to maintain or enhance. But that's ok, because maintainance and enhancement is an operational cost, not a project cost.

The split between functional/technical is in my mind rather artificial. I've been working in IT for a long time. When I started we had analyst programmers. We used to go talk to the business, find out their needs, then go a write the software. My suspicion is that the large consultancies didn't like the technical side of IT, as there you have to produce concrete results. So they came up with the idea of the functional/technical split. This also helped in other ways, because they could then take on "IT" people with no technical knowledge at all, which are certainly a lot easier to find.

...here endeth the rant...

[Former Member]

The best ABAP'ers I have worked with had a healthy amount of disfunctional knowledge. A screw loose here and another shorted wire there led to excellent lateral thinking and hence creative programs.

J. Haynes

[Sandeep_Kumar]

no need to have functional knowledge... if you have any functional queries .. get hold of the functional guys )

[Lakshmipathi]

like to know how much functional knowledge is required for an abaper.

The more you know the functional process, more easy to address the requirement but not mandatory. As already stated, if you are technically strong and aware of intricacies involved, then you can manage any show

thanks

G. Lakshmipathi

[Jelena_Perfiljeva]

Functional knowledge is not required for any ABAPer. Naturally, you will acquire at least some functional knowledge over time, but it is not a requirement.

A good ABAPer is the one who knows and understands the programming techniques; knows how to use them properly to ensure the best system's performance, usability and maintainability.

Frequently this envolves some research to find the best method for performing the task assigned by a team lead or a functional consultant. And something tells me you might lack in this area, because the very similar questions have already posted on SDN several times.

So I would concentrate on improving ABAP skills (I can recommend the book "Enhancing the Quality of ABAP Development" from SAP Press) and analytical skills (learn how to use Search and Google). Without these, any functional knowledge will have very little value.

[Former Member]

However with zero functional knowledge, even SFLIGHT might be a challenge...

I regularly see threads (and answers) in the technical forums for which there is a SPRO solution combined with a bit of training and more carefull selection of the transaction code etc as entry point - but no... user exits and custom programs it is all the way...

Additionally, ABAP guru Horst Keller brought out a new book about best practices for ABAP developers about 4 months ago. I don't have a link handy, but google will.

Cheers,

Julius

[former_member184657]

how much functional knowledge is required for an abaper.

Three-quarters of a pound should be enough.

How to become a good abaper.

Add a tinge of Tobasco as garnish and that should do.

pk

[kesavadas_thekkillath]

If you have enough functional knowledge then you are a functional consultant not an abaper.

So its upto you,

Experience lets you know the functional aspects required for an abaper.

[Former Member]

> If you have enough functional knowledge then you are a functional consultant not an abaper.

Is this really true? I heard before that in India the dream of many developers is to have access to SPRO and not SE80.

It is sometimes also the case that the "funkies" are known as "PowerPoint programmers" and the developers run the show. This is however not always a good thing, depending on how much functional (and disasteral) experience the ABAPer has...

A technical-only developer sent specs mentioning table names will make a mess of your system in no time...

Personally I am not a friend of confining people into boxes. They should at least be able to display the functional aspects. If they change them in the debugger then they are not talking to the right people and have insufficient functional knowledge (or too much access ..

Cheers,

Julius